Could the development of Midwestern ethanol increase the pressure to transfer water out of the Great Lakes?
Jun. 25--Open less than a year, the Granite Falls, Minn., ethanol plant already is looking for help to quench its thirst for water.
So far, it has been pulling all it needs from an underground aquifer. But with supply dwindling, the plant wants to pipe its water from the nearby Minnesota River.
That the Granite Falls Energy plant could run short of groundwater so soon illustrates a problem faced by a flurry of new and proposed ethanol plants that could quadruple annual ethanol production in Minnesota.
Most have been built or are being proposed for south-central and southwestern Minnesota. While rich in the corn used to make the clean-burning, alternative fuel, those areas are short on another key ingredient -- water. Moreover, that water isn't evenly distributed.
With so many plants on the horizon and water shortages possible, the state is ramping up warnings to companies to be extra careful about choosing where to build. Preventing future groundwater depletion ensures water for homes and businesses.
Put all of those together and the volume of ethanol produced in Minnesota each year could quadruple, from 550 million gallons to more than 2 billion gallons. Because it takes 4 to 5 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol, ethanol-related demand for water could increase from 2.5 billion gallons to 10 billion gallons a year.i>
Posted by Dave at June 26, 2006 08:39 AM